Notion Press Academy - Self Publishing Blog in Indiahttps://notionpress.com/academy
Learn how to write, market, publish and distribute your bookMon, 28 Nov 2016 17:40:29 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.13Book Lover Vs Movie Buff -Eight argumentshttps://notionpress.com/academy/book-lover-vs-movie-buff-eight-arguments/
https://notionpress.com/academy/book-lover-vs-movie-buff-eight-arguments/#commentsSun, 27 Nov 2016 14:15:59 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1424If you are a booklover, then there are high chances that you might have read the books before watching the respective movies. In such cases, you are not only well-informed about the story, characterization, and events while you watch the film, but you will also be watching the movie with a lot of expectations. It ...read more

]]>If you are a booklover, then there are high chances that you might have read the books before watching the respective movies. In such cases, you are not only well-informed about the story, characterization, and events while you watch the film, but you will also be watching the movie with a lot of expectations. It is quite interesting to watch the book lovers vs movie buffs fight.

On the contrary, if you are a moviebuff, there are very fewer chances that you might have read the book. So, more are the chances that you will relish the movie for the story, direction, visual effects, etc. To each, their own, while both books and movies have their own beauties, we are bound to argue with our friends on one big topic – Books or Movies?

Ah! The never-ending argument we all have with our friends. All of us would have had this kind of arguments more than once in our lifetime.

Here are eight such arguments!

Yes, isn’t it annoying when you expect each character to be unique in looks, but they all end up beautiful in the movies? When you read a book, you could relate to the protagonist, and then when you watch the movie, they are drop-dead gorgeous making you feel like a house elf.

One of the classic arguments that moviebuffs have with their book-loving counterparts is that books don’t give amazing BGM.

Not including important scenes from the book to the movie is one thing, but not even featuring a character is such a bad thing. So, every booklover deserves to ask this question! You will definitely agree, if you wondered, “Where is Peeves?” while watching the Harry Potter Movie Series.

Movies are, indeed, an easy and quick entertainment option. Also, you can get to watch a movie with your friend together at the same time, but reading a book with a friend depends on individual reading speeds.

People recognise Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters, and so on. While this can be a success for the movie industry, a reader’s mind is forever changed after watching a movie.

Some books might be written in a narration that is open to various perceptions. However, when it comes to movies, director and the screenwriter puts clarity to the story.

Nothing can annoy a book lover than changing the ending of their favourite story. In the name of giving clarity, climaxes or events in the climax shouldn’t be changed. No, Harry, you don’t break the elder wand

Even if one has a vivid imagination, it is always nice to see amazing visual effects on the screen that enhances the overall feel of the story.

Well, which side you generally take? What are the other arguments that you have with your friends when it comes to “books or movies”? Let us know in the comments section.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/book-lover-vs-movie-buff-eight-arguments/feed/0Mohit Uppal, an IITian Management Consultant, Talks About How He Wrote his First Novelhttps://notionpress.com/academy/mohit-uppal-an-iitian-management-consultant-talks-about-how-he-wrote-his-first-novel/
https://notionpress.com/academy/mohit-uppal-an-iitian-management-consultant-talks-about-how-he-wrote-his-first-novel/#commentsThu, 24 Nov 2016 07:03:47 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1405Mohit Uppal, an IITian Management Consultant, Talks About How He Wrote his First Novel. You can track our First Book Podcast series here.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/mohit-uppal-an-iitian-management-consultant-talks-about-how-he-wrote-his-first-novel/feed/013 Books to Read if You’re a Jeffrey Archer Fanhttps://notionpress.com/academy/books-to-read-if-you-are-a-jeffrey-archer-fan/
https://notionpress.com/academy/books-to-read-if-you-are-a-jeffrey-archer-fan/#commentsMon, 21 Nov 2016 09:27:11 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1412The release of Kane and Abel took the literary world by storm. Crime thriller lovers spent endless hours immersed in the compelling story of William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski; their powerfully written characterization and a plot that sees them get tangled in a 60-year power struggle on the background of war, marriage, fortune and ...read more

]]>The release of Kane and Abel took the literary world by storm. Crime thriller lovers spent endless hours immersed in the compelling story of William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski; their powerfully written characterization and a plot that sees them get tangled in a 60-year power struggle on the background of war, marriage, fortune and disaster. If you enjoy the quirky writing style, set in plausibly realistic and relatable backgrounds, you’re bound to have read a Jeffrey Archer book. Look beyond his works, and you’ll find a whole other bunch of novels that could rival Archer’s genius. Here are 13 books to read if you are a Jeffrey Archer fan.

The Odessa File

Author- Frederick Forsyth

An all-weather gripping read, The Odessa File is one of Frederick Forsyth’s best-selling crime thrillers. Famous for its climactic plot twist and fast-paced action, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A fiction novel written around a factual background, The Odessa File is a must read if you enjoy the powerful plots of Jeffrey Archer novels.

Random Violence

Author: Jassy Mackenzie

A good book to read on long journeys, Random Violence is a book that stays true to the crime thriller genre. This is the first entry to Jassy Mackenzie’s series involving her protagonist; Private Investigator Jade de Jong.

Ten years since her father’s murder, Jade de Jong returns to Johannesburg, her native, only to be thrust into a troubled post-apartheid world. She sets out to help her father’s old partner, David Patel, in a murder case, while also plotting revenge against her father’s convicted murderer. Her investigation into both matters leads her into a chain link of crimes linked to her father’s death, all for profit.

The book gives you a little slice of life read, with its background of Johannesburg after Nelson Mandela’s abolishing of apartheid. The characterization is strong, making you empathise with Jade’s strife for justice. With multiple plot twist, this book and its sequels are a compelling read.

The Bondage of the Will

Author: Martin Luther

While not a crime thriller, The Bondage of the Will sees man battle within himself over the concept of free will, a power given to him by God. Published in 1525, Martin Luther’s work is considered a theology classic.

If you enjoy a strong use of vocabulary and complex theistic arguments, this book is a worthy read. Martin Luther’s passionate writing style, filled with arguments directed towards Erasmus, can be compared to the intellectual war of words between Kane and Abel.

The Power of One

Author: Bryce Courtenay

If Kane and Abel centres around the power struggle of two protagonists, The Power of One is as its name suggests. With an intriguing storyline and rich historical background, The Power of One is a captivating read.

Narrated through the eyes of protagonist Peekay, an Englishman living in South Africa, the story follows his life from childhood to adulthood as he deals with issues like bullying, abuse, racism and self-discovery. His ambitious nature drives him to take up interest in boxing, a sport with which he fights his inner demons and those who stand against him.

With settings such as a boarding school, minefield, boxing bout and prison, The Power of One has the mix of an adventure rescue thriller in the backdrop of a war-torn world.

Airport

Author: Arthur Hailey

The rather mundane daily life at Lincoln International, a fictional airport based in Chicago, is turned upside down one evening when a violent snowstorm hits the city. Airport General Manager Mel Bakersfield has to tackle the panic striking situation while also deal with his marital issues. All the while, the snow creates havoc on the runway, causing an aircraft to be clogged on the main runway. Mel is forced to race against time and resolve the matter while other characters in the airport face similar personal issues to tackle as they interact with one another.

Mysterious, comical and flat out entertaining, Airport makes you feel for Mel and his cohorts while being guided on by a fast-paced plot.

The Justice Game

Author: Randy Singer

After a target for an investigative report storms in and guns down a news anchor, the victim’s family file a lawsuit against the gun company the accused used as a weapon. The lawyers on either side, Kelly Starling for the plaintiff and Jason Noble for the defendant, battle it out in court only to realise the darker side of the matter is more than just a fight for justice and one that could effectively ruin their careers and many other lives.

Anyone who loves the power of argument, mixed in typical courtroom fashion and mystery, will have a long, unstoppable read with this book.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Author: Sidney Sheldon

Many believe he is the mastermind of the crime thriller genre and with Are You Afraid of the Dark, he proves it right yet again. Lies, deceit, betrayal and redemption, an age-old formula blended with Sidney Sheldon’s erotic powerplay.

The plot follows two widows who battle for justice after their husbands die mysterious and violent deaths. The fact that their husbands were colleagues working at a prestigious think tank brings them together, as they use their wit, guile and sexuality to take down the conspirators by any means necessary.

Providing twists at unexpected moments, Are You Afraid of the Dark, in classic Sidney fashion, is a terrific read. Fast paced, heart stopping action sequences and well-written characters make this a must-read on the list.

The Story of Tracy Baker

Author: Jacqueline Wilson

An award-winning children’s book, you might wonder why it’s on this list. Simply put, it brings a wave of nostalgia every time you sit down and read to your kids. While children can relate to the characters easily, adults will find the soft humour, imaginative scenarios and wonderfully written characters very similar to Archer’s writing style.

Another character you can really feel for, The Story of Tracy Baker is playing with your emotions on every page. Tracy’s imaginative world is one we all wish was real, and the depiction of life in a children’s home is as real as it gets.

Dongri to Dubai

Author: Hussain Zaidi

Dongri to Dubai is a book that is impossible to put down. The pacing is terrific, and the lives of dons are so well and factually written. A book Archer fans and crime thriller fans, in general, would adore.

Six Suspects

Author: Vikas Swarup

An intriguing crime thriller with interesting characters and true to life setting, Six Suspects will shock your nerves in it’s climax.

Read this book if you enjoy deep, well-developed characterisation and a mix of life in each character’s respective role. The link between each character is also well done in a broken narrative. The best moment is of-course saved for the last, with that awesome plot twist.

The Insider

Author: Reece Hirsch

What do you get when you mix a murder mystery with corporate law and the mafia? A book like The Insider that showcases the harsh reality of law and order.

Mystery, action, secrets, corporate espionage and more. All the ingredients to make a worthy and unforgettable read.

The Second Lady

Author: Irving Wallace

Ah yes, the age-old movie warfare between the world’s superpowers- America and Russia. Put that in a book, with a rather intriguing plot; you get a politically thrilling masterpiece with The Second Lady.

A classic read for lovers of a political thriller, with an ending that is left for the readers to decide upon.

The Last Child

Author: John Hart

We can’t figure out the genre of this book, as it has a mix of everything, giving it a unique narrative that only John Hart has mastered.

The story follows the 13-year-old Johnny Merrimon, who has the perfect life and a happy family. His world falls apart when his sister, Alyssa, goes missing. In a hometown plagued with tragedies, Johnny is determined to find his sister and is aided by detective Clyde Hunt. Things get more mysterious and darker when more young children go missing, and Johnny is faced with the truth about his sister he simply cannot accept.

Unique writing styles are rare, and this book takes the cake as one of the most gripping narratives in existence. The Last Child is a timeless read that will leave chills down your spine with every turn of a page.

Life always needs a little mystery, and we hope this list is big enough to heighten your senses and pump up the adrenaline.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/books-to-read-if-you-are-a-jeffrey-archer-fan/feed/0How to Turn Your Poetry Collection into a Bookhttps://notionpress.com/academy/how-to-turn-your-poetry-collection-into-a-book/
https://notionpress.com/academy/how-to-turn-your-poetry-collection-into-a-book/#commentsSun, 20 Nov 2016 08:55:40 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1409You’re a poet and you know it, but do you have the ambition to let everyone else know too? If so, the best way to bring about awareness for your collection of poems is to turn them into a book. Every aspiring author knows that earning reputation means being known as someone who published a ...read more

]]>You’re a poet and you know it, but do you have the ambition to let everyone else know too? If so, the best way to bring about awareness for your collection of poems is to turn them into a book. Every aspiring author knows that earning reputation means being known as someone who published a worthy read. Here is a great guide to turn your poetry collection into a book.

While publishing a poetry book may seem like the hardest part, the first step, which is assembling your collection, is quite a challenge. With a good amount of time and more importantly, the right mindset, you might just end up with a pretty neat book.

Before you begin

Today’s advanced technology has given writers a multitude of options to get their works read. So, it’s best for you to make a conscious decision on how you want to present your works. For starters, there are three formats you can choose from for your presentation style:

● Paperback/Hardbound book
● Chapbook
● e-book/Blog

Paperback/Hardbound books are the standard formats. Selecting to do this would take you a step closer to be considered a proper published author. The flipside is that books are more expensive to make, let alone publish and promote. They can also be time-consuming and require a large amount of content to be considered an actual book.

Chapbooks go as far back as the 19th century and are considered as one of the early forms of publishing literature during the industrial revolution. Modern chapbooks look similar to pamphlets, run about 40 pages and are mostly used as a medium for light reads like poetry. Chapbooks are also cheaper to make and can be done by yourself. Opt for this format if you have budget constraints and fewer poems in your collection.
Blogs may not be considered as a proper publishing source, but can still be handy for first-time poets who are eager to show their work. Making a blog costs virtually nothing as you have multiple free blogging platforms, but for those looking to go pro, opt for creating a premium blog and website where you can own what you write and can protect your material. E-Books are not just a digital version of a paperback book; they can also give you the added advantage of being able to continuously update your poems. While books restrict you to a certain number, e-books give you the option of adding more content for your readers without having to publish an entirely new set.

Organising your poems

Start by planning out what goes in your book; either create a poetic anthology or just have an assortment of poems. To prepare your manuscript, you also need to decide whether you will be writing by hand or printing it out. Don’t bother about the size of the paper, but make sure you get a manuscript quality paper that feels not only great to write on but also looks great in presentation.

Whatever be the theme of your poems, make sure it is arranged in a logical fashion. You can think of creating a chronology and see how you can interlink each poem. Organisation is key when preparing a book, it gives your work a sense of structure and ensures a pleasant experience for your potential readers.

Poetry collections look great in a chapbook, so let’s get cracking and guide you on how to make one with all your rhymes in it.

Creating a Chapbook

As mentioned earlier, chapbooks can be created easily and by yourself. All the material required can be found at your nearest supermarket at affordable rates. Here’s a list of what you will need:

When you’re all set, get comfortable and begin the meticulous process of making the chapbook that compliments your poetry collection. Here’s a step by step process of how it’s done:

The cover

1. Take your ruler and measure out a size of 4.25 (width) by 5.5 (height) inches (standard size of chapbook paper). Cut out two pieces of cardboard for your front and back covers that are roughly one inch more on either side to create a snug fitting for the papers.
2. Use your choice of colourful paper to wrap up the cardboard or use clear colours if you plan to do a cover art.
3. If you’re gifted with artistic talent as much as your rhyming skills, scribble through some cover designs that you believe can relate well with the theme you have chosen before finalising one for your cover. This is an important part, so if you’re not up to the task, outsource it to someone who can do it.

The papers

1. Start by carefully numbering out your pages in the order of chronology you had decided.
2. Make sure you write the poems only on one side of the paper.
3. Keep the other side of illustrations or wordy chronological connectors.
4. Same as for the cover, illustrations can complete your poems. Experiment yourself or ask for help.

Binding it all together

1. Fit the properly arranged papers between the two covers.
2. Punch a hole through the whole lot. Make sure you punch not too close to the writing or illustrations. Drawing borders make this easier.
3. Use the binding twine to firmly grip everything together.

Now with you chapbook ready, the real challenge comes; getting your work noticed. The reason we suggested a chapbook is that there are national and international competitions running throughout the year for chapbook makers of any literature. Get your work registered to as many of the competitions as you can and soon enough your hard work will be paid off. Popular publishers could notice your work, leading to profitable book publishing deals across all platforms.

Considered one of the finest works of poetry ever, Dante’s Divine Comedy is not particularly a comedy, rather an allegory. The poem is also very complex and has numerous instances of religious references, scientific themes and mathematical formulae entwined in witty Italian dialogue. Translated into numerous languages over the years, Dante’s poem has been decrypted to be seen as more than just a good read but a lesson for mankind. The poem tells the tale of Dante’s journey to the afterlife, as he is guided through three different stages; hell, purgatory and paradise. On the first two stages, Dante witnesses the wrath of God on sinners; how each type of sinner suffers in unique ways for his crimes. At last, Dante reaches paradise, where he describes in awe his vision of the holy trinity. A phrase from the poem reads:

But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars

Shakespeare’s Sonnets- William Shakespeare

You know what to expect when you see a William Shakespeare collection. Shakespeare’s Sonnets compiles the best poetic verses ever written by the famous playwright. The sonnets are linked together with the central themes of youth, beauty, love and sexuality. There is a total of 154 sonnets, with 126 addressed to a young man and 28 addressed to a woman. The unique thing about these sonnets is that they have a story flowing between each one of them, all connected with powerful characters; the fair youth, the dark lady and the rival poet. Shakespeare’s Sonnets has been described as the beginning of modern love and have greatly influenced cross-cultural romance among the new generation. A line for the poem reads:

A woman’s face with nature’s hand painted,
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion.

The Selected Poems of Li Po- David Hinton

David Hinton gives us a reimagining of Li Po’s (known as Li Bai) finest poetry. Li Po is an important figure in Chinese history and is considered a poetic mastermind of the Golden Age of China (700 AD). Much of Li Po’s poems reflect his life, the journey he took across the lands and the people he met. The poes is so powerfully written that their verses can even be considered relatable to this day and age. Po’s poems glorify peace and prosperity while showing disgust towards war. His Zen-inspired poetic style often makes readers think deeper beyond the simple structure of the poems. The highlight of each poem is the way the imagery connects to the words, giving a fulfilling experience to readers. A line from one of his poem reads:

“The birds have vanished from the sky,
and now the last clouds slip away.
We sit alone, the mountain and I,
until only the mountain remains.”

Oracle- Cate Marvin

Cate Marvin’s Oracle is a powerfully written anthology that deals with the struggles of today’s youth including the tortures of high school, violence against women and the difficulties of living in a broken world. The theme may be considered as horror poetry but the poems have moments of light humour. The central characters of the poem involve dead people who speak directly to the reader and explain the consequence of their actions in a broken narrative that is partly rhythmic. While being gory and at times outright ridiculous, the way Cate Marvin writes her verses puts the reader in a deep sense of curiosity over the plausibility of it happening in real life. A line from the poem reads:

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/how-to-turn-your-poetry-collection-into-a-book/feed/09 Booker Prize Winning Books That You Must Readhttps://notionpress.com/academy/9-booker-prize-winning-books-that-you-must-read/
https://notionpress.com/academy/9-booker-prize-winning-books-that-you-must-read/#commentsTue, 15 Nov 2016 13:14:12 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1401Formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, simply known as the Booker Prize, is an annual literary prize awarded for the best original novel written in the English language. Renowned internationally for its success and significance in the literary circle, Booker Prize is greeted with anticipation and fanfare. Initially started ...read more

]]>Formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, simply known as the Booker Prize, is an annual literary prize awarded for the best original novel written in the English language. Renowned internationally for its success and significance in the literary circle, Booker Prize is greeted with anticipation and fanfare. Initially started as an award only for Commonwealth, Irish, and Zimbabwean countries, this prize is now open for any English language novel.

How can we write a list of Booker Prize winning books and not mention the book that won the Booker of all Bookers? Yes, we are serious! This book won the Booker Prize in the year 1981, and during the 25th and the 40th anniversaries of the Booker Prize ceremony, Salman’s book again won the “Booker of the Bookers,” and “The Best of the Booker” respectively.

While people aspire for at least one Booker, Salman Rushdie won three and that too for the same book. If these awards are not inspiring you to read the book, we don’t know what would.

The book discusses the transition of India from British colonialism to independence. The novel is a perfect example of postcolonial literature. Written in the genre of magical realism, the book is the story of Saleem Sinai, who was born at the exact moment when India got independence. Born with telepathic powers, Saleem has an enormous, constantly dripping nose that is ultra sensitive to smell. The story talks about power, religion, government, laws, and life with such ease, and once you finish this novel, you are bound to linger around in Saleem’s world for quite a long time.

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James:

Written by Jamaican author Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings is the most recent Booker prize winner, i.e. for the year 2015. Primarily about the assassination of Bob Marley, the book spans across several decades covering various incidents that occurred in Jamaica from the 1970s to 1990s.

The novel is split into five sections, each one named after one musical track that covers the events of a single day. Yes, the story is about five different, single day’s happenings. Winner of a lot of book awards, this book discusses politically motivated violence between gangs associated with two political parties, how it causes assassination of Bob Marley, who was referred as the singer throughout the book, and how Jamaica is now after all these incidents.

The book not only brought to life the Jamaica of the 70s but was also elaborative and narrative. No wonder, the book has won so many awards.

The adventure, fantasy novel is about the life of Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel. An Indian boy from Pondicherry, South India, explores various issues from spirituality to practicality from a very early age in his life. The story takes a thrilling turn when he gets struck in a shipwreck with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker and is left to survive with very minimal basics. He survives 227 days finally to reach a beach in Mexico. The ending of the book where Pi tells his story to the officials is something that was excellently narrated.

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre:

Adapted twice as a stage play, this novel is about the life of Vernon Little. A normal teenager living in Martirio, Vernon’s life shatters when his best friend, Jesus Navarro, kills himself but not before murdering his classmates in the schoolyard.

The Booker Prize judges described this book as “coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with America.” While you read this book, you can see similarities in the characters of Vernon with Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.

This book is bound to make you laugh and at the same time make you think about what is wrong in the society. Written with satirical invective and witty irony, the book is filled with humour, wittiness, intelligence, and fun.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy:

Winning the Booker Prize for the debut novel? Well, many people can only dream of such an achievement. Written as a semi-biographic fiction, this novel was both a commercial as well as a literary success.

The first and the only novel of Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things is a story about fraternal twins and their life lessons and experiences. Separated at an early age and destroyed by the “Love Laws” of the world we live in, the twins struggle a lot and find their solace in each other. How they face trivial issues in their lives forms the rest of the story. The story is based on how the society decides who should be loved, how they should be loved, and how much they should be loved.

Ms Roy explores how the small things affect people’s behaviour and their lives to a great extent.

Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally

The Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List” that we all rave about is based on this novel by Thomas Keneally. This historical fiction is, however, based on a true story. The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, who is a Nazi Party member. He suddenly turns into a hero when he saves 1200 Jews in Poland and Germany concentration camps. While the book describes actual people, places, and events, it has reconstructed dialogues to set the historical fiction genre.

If you have watched the movie and felt awestruck, you must read the book as well to get more insights on the real story.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

One of the major inspirations for many new age writers – Kiran Desai is known for her strong narration and rich vocabulary. Her second book The Inheritance of Loss, which was written over a period of seven years, won the Booker prize in the year 2006.

The story is about the lives of Biju and Sai. While Biju is an Indian immigrant living in the U.S, Sai is an Anglicised Indian girl living in India. The story runs across decades, between past and present, and between the points of views of the two protagonists.

Narrated brilliantly to suit every reader, the book is an excellent, gripping read. While the major theme of the story is post-colonialism, the story also discusses crucial topics like loss of identity, individualism, tradition, lifestyle, etc.

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

Another book that is going to make you laugh out loud is The Finkler Question. This book is the story of three single (two widowed and one unmarried) men who have prickly and different lives. Despite the difference they meet and dine together at one of their apartments often.

The story takes a steep turn when one of them gets attacked by a random woman. The story, despite being funny and comical, discusses some of the crucial topics like race, religion, adultery, betrayal, friendship, etc.

Howard Jacobson, who is known for his wittiness, has weaved magic with words in this novel. With practical jokes and highly relatable comical scenarios, this book is a must-read for any book lover.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The debut novel by the Indian author, Aravind Adiga, puts a dark humour perspective to the class struggle that countries like India has been facing for years. Told through the historical narration of a villager, Balram Hawai, the story is about his journey to Delhi.

In Delhi, he works as a personal driver to a wealthy landlord. From there, he flees off to Bangalore after killing his master and stealing his money. The story examines the issues of religion, loyalty, caste, corruption, and poverty in our country.

The book discusses the journey of Balram from a driver to a murderer to an entrepreneur. Some of the topics that Aravind discusses in this book are globalisation, individualism, freedom, social class, caste, etc.

All of these books have won the Booker Prize because they were unique in their plotline, active in narration, and spoke of a social issue. Apart from being the best reads, these books are also a classic literature that could very well be used as a part of school curriculum down the lane. In fact, most of us would have read part of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in school or college days.

If you are planning to write a novel, these are some of the classic books that you need to have read to understand the various aspects involved in writing a book. Also, these books make a meaningful gift to your loved ones this festive season. What are you waiting for? Start reading them. What are your favourite Booker Prize winning books? Let us know on the comments section below.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/editing-tips-for-writers/feed/0Schoolmates turned Co-founders of India’s Largest Publishing Platform share their Success Formulashttps://notionpress.com/academy/schoolmates-turned-co-founders-of-indias-largest-publishing-platform-share-their-success-formulas/
https://notionpress.com/academy/schoolmates-turned-co-founders-of-indias-largest-publishing-platform-share-their-success-formulas/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2016 06:45:37 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1376Here’s the Transcript: [Music] Kiruba: Hello and welcome to the Movers and Shakers podcast, where we speak with passionate achievers in business and in life. This is where we ask the right questions to dissect the DNA of their success. The whole idea is how we can become better by learning form others. In this ...read more

Kiruba: Hello and welcome to the Movers and Shakers podcast, where we speak with passionate achievers in business and in life. This is where we ask the right questions to dissect the DNA of their success. The whole idea is how we can become better by learning form others. In this episode, we speak to not just one but three people. The three of them are co-founders at Notion Press. Notion Press has grown to be one of India’s largest publishing platforms. They help authors with book production, publishing, printing, and distribution services. It’s very interesting how I got to meet them. A few months ago, I finished my manuscript for a book titled First Book, you know, this is a book where I compile best practices and advises from bestselling authors, meant for people who are writing their first book. And it was just at that time that a mutual friend of ours introduced me to the three co-founders and we met for dinner and we instantly hit off. The reason why we hit off was because Notion Press is exactly doing what I am doing as well, which is, they are making life very easy for first-time authors. Ask anyone who has authored a book and trust me when I say this, I’ve done five and it’s very, very difficult to pass through the gates of a traditional publishing house and to have them publish your book. So, they make it very easy for first-time authors, and they’ve grown phenomenally well as well. They started their business on January 1, 2012, and in a little over four and a half years, they’ve grown to over 50,000 members, their publishing reaches over a hundred countries and last month, they closed a million dollars in funding. For me, the real motivation to go speak to them, is not so much in their growth story. For me, it was about how three schoolmates got together and worked seamlessly together to build this company and, you know, I was very fascinated by the chemistry between the three of them. So, I decided that I should go meet them up and really find out what is the secret sauce that really bounced in together. I was very fascinated how they handle disagreements, how did they handle when they don’t agree on certain things, how did they handle the pressures of scale and growing globally. So, I’ve asked a lot of very fascinating questions; I’ve received very fascinating answers as well. This is an interview I thoroughly enjoyed and I’m sure you’ll love listening to them as well. So, with that, let’s just jump right into the podcast.

Kiruba: Over 55,000 community members, over 2,000 first-time authors, books distributed in over a hundred countries and they just closed a million dollars in funding. So, Bhargav, Jana, and Naveen, congratulations on the way how you have grown Notion Press to this level. But first, how did Notion Press begin?

Naveen: Thank you, Kiruba. We started Notion Press in January 2012. We wanted to publish a book, Bhargav and I, and we approached Jana, who was already a publisher. His response was kind of shocking to us; he said, “No, he cannot publish this book.” We were like, “Dude, you’re our friend. You’re supposed to publish our book.” So, that’s when he introduced us to reality and told us that that was not how publishers think. So, looking at other alternate options, we found self-publishing and we found that there were not many credible self-publishing companies in India at that time and you know how it works – you have a problem, you try to solve it yourself and you end up starting a company. So, that’s how we started Notion Press also.

Kiruba: To set the context right, all three of you are actually schoolmates. Is that right, Jana?

Jana: Yes. Naveen and I are classmates and Bhargav is my junior.

Kiruba: Got it. So, Bhargav, after school, each one of you went to three different colleges. In fact, geographically, from three different directions in the outskirts of Chennai. What is that made you guys stick together?

Bhargav: Naveen and me have been working together even after school. So, we used to run blogs together and we used to design multiple applications in our computer classes. So, we just stayed in touch and when this need arose, where we wanted to build a publishing platform for India, that’s when we came together with Jana.

Kiruba: A lot of people think that the success of co-founders results because the chemistry is very nice between them. But the actual truth is that there is a strong base that gets built. In your case, it was school friendship that you continued to keep that friendship alive even during the college days. And then you joined together, right? That’s very important to have that chemistry. Right, Naveen?

Naveen: Correct! In fact, more than that, what we did was we established some ground rules. We realised that as more success comes or failure comes, there could be a lot of conflict situations that we had to handle. So, somewhere around December 25th, just before starting the company, we sat down in Bhargav’s house and wrote the rules of what we mean to each other and what we mean to the company. That’s the benchmark we go to even today when we have any conflict.

Kiruba: You guys are young, right? In 2012, you were even younger. I would imagine sitting down and writing ground rules, you know, coming from a 40-year-old after having 15 years of work experience. So, how did that come about? The maturity to ensure that each one of you will take individual task; you won’t step on each other’s toes. Where did that come from?

Naveen: So, Kiruba, Naveen here. For this, Bhargav’s father has been a mentor since we started. He used to head a division for HCL; so, he is the one who came up with the idea and said, “You guys are starting out. You’re going to see a lot of things in the future. So, why don’t you guys sit down and put down your thoughts about what you want for each other and what you want collectively so that tomorrow there’s no confusion about it. So, that’s when we sat and wrote these ground rules.

Kiruba: Okay, and you started the company on January 1, 2012. What were the ground rules that you guys set? What were the responsibilities you guys took on for each other? Jana, you wanna…?

Jana: Each one had each capabilities. Bhargav is into tech, Naveen is into sales and marketing, and I’m into publishing and distribution. Each person will have veto in their domain. So, if something comes up in publishing, it’s my decision. If something is regarding tech, it’s Bhargav’s decision. So, this is how we manage the thing.

Kiruba: And, Jana, it was easy for you because your dad ran a publishing/printing business, is that right?

Jana: No, publishing and distribution business.

Kiruba: So, it was there in your blood and did your dad help you out in all this because it’s a very related business.

Jana: Yeah, we used to get a lot of advises on publishing and production part from him. I had a lot of advises from my dad and I also got a lot of connects from my dad in publishing.

Kiruba: So, that’s also the danger right, Bhargav? Because when you have people advising you, who are in the traditional forms of business, it is very easy to just latch on to a traditional ways of working. But you guys broke the mould. You have put, you know, online as your main area of focus. So, where did that thought process come from?

Bhargav: You see, it’s always a good thing to have a mentor in the publishing industry. But the thing is that only one person knows publishing and the other two were mostly into tech. So, when we started out, we didn’t look at the traditional route. We thought how do you make a platform and how do you make it accessible for first-time authors to get their product out there. So, that’s where our entire focus was and that kind of helped us to; sometimes, Jana would ground us back to reality saying something was not possible in publishing and sometimes we challenge him saying that we have to do this otherwise we can’t scale the market or we can’t achieve something that’s…we can’t be the same other publishing company. You need to do something different. So, that’s how we brainstormed together.

Kiruba: I’m sure there are multiple occasions when you guys were at loggerheads, right? Even though each one of you have a veto in your own area, but there are situations where you don’t agree with others’ decision and sparks fly. How do you handle that? How do you ensure that disagreements with certain ones actually does not affect the relationship?

Naveen: So, a large part of that has been, I mean, we’ve been helped by having disagreements even before this – before starting Notion Press, right! So, having been friends for 15 years, we’ve only had disagreements over everything. Which cricketer you support, which movie you watched! Then you start building healthy appreciation for each other. But when it comes to money and business and things that are little more important, what we did was we created, in fact, even today, we foster a system where it’s okay to be challenged as long as you can explain. So, even when we work on a plan today, we have somebody come in. Even if he is a junior employee, who has just joined in, we allow him to challenge our thought process and that fosters a culture of being able to question this status quo. So, that mentality is what I think helps us even in this conflict situations.

Kiruba: So, Bhargav, I’ve seen multiple cases in startups where people actually, you know, venture capitalists, actually advice not to work with family or friends. When you are especially seeking because you don’t want to mix friendship and money. But you guys are complete outliers. You’ve made friendship really work for you. But what would be your advice if you were to advise other startup folks wanting to find co-founders? What would be your advice?

Bhargav: I think you can go with friends because they probably understand you better. You can find an equal co-founder also with a technical expertise but sometimes, you need friends to bounce off your ideas also. So, it might be better if you guys are friends and if you’ve known each other for a long time.

Kiruba: In this case, you’ve got lucky because the three of you had hugely complementary skills. But if a guy, let’s say, has a very good idea but has zero technical knowledge, or a technology guy with an awesome idea but wants somebody with a strong business backing; what would be your advice? Where do you think they can go ahead and find founders?

Naveen: I think the best place to start would be within your own circles. Like Bhargav said, while working, it’s okay; you can have people with complementary skills and all that but when you startup, your life is beyond your work, sometimes. There are conflicts issues that you need to handle personally. There would be people who come out and ask, “Why are you doing this? You had a well paying job. Why are you coming and doing this?” So, you need a support system and I think the best place to search is within your circle of people that you know. And if you don’t find anybody, I think the world has become a much open place for you to go out to different startup communities and startup events to pitch your idea and find your founder. But I strongly believe that if you have the same moral values as another person, you would be able to make that connection no matter what.

Kiruba: Jana, what are some of the advantages you find in working as co-founders? For example, I am a solo guy; I am the boss and the one who takes the decisions. But in your case, three of you work so well with each other. What are the advantages you find in having partners?

Jana: We can handle pressure, allocate work, divide the work among ourself and work better and also we can complement each other better.

Kiruba: Got it. Bhargav, what advantages have you found?

Bhargav: Well, I would say that I am more of a techie and I have no knowledge about how to do business or marketing or I had no core industry knowledge about publishing. So, when we three got together, it was a complete eye-opener to learn about the kind of marketing you can do and what you actually need to do for printing, what kind of paper should be used, and more.

Naveen: So, I’ve always found that more often and not for me, having co-founders, the best part is that you get to have a lot of fun. If you are alone, you’re absolutely scared and you are running all the time. So, here, even when there is a huge situation or pressure that’s happening, these guys will definitely find a way to make a joke out of it. So, that’s a very important thing. And then you go back and say, “Okay, macha, what else do we do?” You have a group of people to whom you can say that and that peace of mind is what keeps us alive, running this.

Kiruba: I think I agree because they say it’s lonely at the top. And when you have friends at the top, it’s even more fun for you to work. Another important thing in scaling up business; how big is Notion Press is in terms of number of people?

Naveen: We have about 120 people at the moment.

Kiruba: They say that the success of a good company that scales up is also to build your second rung of leadership. How did you guys hire the people and more importantly, what are you doing to retain them?

Naveen: How we hired people, the second rung is exactly the way we got together. We found people who were excited from within our circles. Some of them were working in very large companies like Oracle and they decided to join us because they were as passionate about what we did and they saw growth. We believe in not just having passion, but they need to have their life goals aligned to ours. Otherwise, what happens is, after a while, it dies down and you will find yourself thinking if you made the right decision. So, when we hire somebody, we talk to them very personal about what their life goals are and see whether our growth aligns with what they have in mind. If it aligns, then we decide to work with them. So, far we’ve got about 4 to 5 people in leadership and it has worked out phenomenally for us.

Kiruba: Bhargav, you head technology and I like the kind of innovations that you have bought in to the website, which is like it’s immediately scalable right from go; anybody anywhere in the world can come and take your services. What are some of the unique innovations that you’ve done?

Bhargav: What we have done is, in India, the problem in India is you never know how many books you sell because there is an annual royalty model and annual sales report model. So, the first thing when we came out with Notion Press was that we needed to make sure that people knew how much they are selling. We started giving them live sales report. So, whenever an order comes in and the book is sold, the author immediately knows how much he or she is going to make in that order. We pay it 30 days. If your book is sold today, in the next 30 days, you are going to get your money. We also started building tools for promotions. So, we understand that, for authors, a book might be highly priced sometimes. But you need to give those special coupon codes you like, your first circle, your second circle or to corporate and stuff like that. We allow authors to start setting up their own coupons to set up their own promotions from within Notion Press itself and it appears on Flipkart, Amazon, and all the other stores. Those are the kind of things we keep working on and start building more tools for launching tools. We’ve built tools for launching books, sort of like viral campaigns to launch your book. We start building on these quirky ideas to do good marketing for books.

Kiruba: The term Authorpreneur is a very interesting one. I like how Notion Press sees every book as a startup and every author as a CEO and I completely agree with that because having authored books, I’ve seen the kind of impact the books have had in my own business and building my personality. So, explain Authorpreneur and how did you come up with that concept?

Naveen: A couple of years ago we were sitting and thinking; we saw that a lot of our books peaked and suddenly the sail started slowing after a certain point. Once we noticed this point, we were wondering what’s happening with that. We found that authors kind of lost interest in promoting their books or something that was happening. That’s when, we thought, maybe we need to do something for the community and we need to help these authors. So, I was talking to one of these…I usually use these focus groups as set of authors that we are very close with to talk to them to find out what’s going and I was talking to one of the authors, who said, “Dude, the reason why I am successful is because I don’t like an author but like an entrepreneur.” His book sells consistently even today. That’s when it struck that it’s not something different from what we do here; we’ve been treating authors all along as they are writers, they are creative people and all that. I think if that changes, this whole thing about an author only being a creator and not willing to do anything else; if that culture changes, we will have more successful writers. Now you look at it, all your commercially successful writers like Chetan or Amish, they are all excellent entrepreneurs. They would be able to head any business and run it because there is that discipline and logic that is associated with what they are doing. So, that’s why we wanted to foster that culture and to be able to do that, we coined this term Authorpreneur and we wanted to promote that.

Kiruba: Got it. Jana, you head publishing and distribution, right? It’s amazing that now it has reached a hundred countries, which means that anybody from any of these hundred countries can potentially buy and you will ensure that the book reaches them and that’s phenomenal. How did you make this happen?

Jana: We have tied up with a lot of printers locally in those countries, strategically located countries. Whenever an order comes from the ecommerce stores, the books get printed locally and shipped to their country, directly to the customers.

Kiruba: And this is very helpful right? And this is the beauty of print-on-demand. If somebody from Macedonia buys a book, that particular book gets printed out there and gets distributed as against printing it here in Chennai and then couriering it to Macedonia. Correct?

Jana: Why did you go for venture capital funding? What was the need for you to raise money.

Naveen: After a point, we realised that the business had a huge abilities to scale. So, as like the entrepreneur Steve Jobs said, “You can only connect the dots looking backward.” Now, when we look at it, we are kicking ourselves thinking why weren’t we faster! When we started, we didn’t know that the market was this big. So, at one point, you realise that it keeps growing and that’s when you decide, hey, if you play it right, now that you’re at the top of the game, if you play it right, you could be a global player. So, we’ve always wanted Notion Press to be a global brand in publishing because you compare what we offer with anybody across the world, we stand out as being one of the best. We built that for Indian audience. So, we want to take it to other countries also and we realised that to be able to go to other countries quickly and not do the same mistakes we did in the past four years, we needed to raise funds.

Kiruba: And what specific steps are you taking to take Notion Press global?

Bhargav: First, we start focusing on which country has a good, let’s say, readership and literacy rate. So, we start thinking about if we want to enter, is there a regional language in the country. If there’s a country, are books being published in the regional language? Are people in that country actually reading books? Is that a pass-time or if it’s a tourist country, people don’t read a lot of books in those specific places. If it’s more of a developing economy, where technology and innovations are nurtured, there’s better literacy rate. We start focusing on which countries and where people like to read and where people want to get published can go on to share their ideas. So, we start focusing down on those countries and are planning to enter those markets.

Kiruba: Got it. Is it secret about the next set of countries you want to expand? Or, is it okay for you to answer this?

Naveen: Yeah, yeah! We are expanding next month so I don’t think anybody will be able to expand much earlier. We are planning to enter Sri Lanka, Singapore, and South Africa, primarily because of the factors that he said. Our market research shows us that these countries have a good literacy rate, a very vibrant author-reading community, good e-commerce and these are things that are required for any writing community to thrive. So, once we find that these are available, the approach we take in these countries might be different and what we did in India. It could be ebooks, it could print books, or it could be a combination of both. But our learning will come from each of this market.

Kiruba: There’s this perception that self-publishing is equal to vanity publishing and there’s this perception that when your books get published by publishers of repute, then your book is better. So, how do you handle this stigma?

Naveen: We felt this stigma in 2012. By 2014, we don’t feel this stigma a lot today primarily because of the success stories that we’ve been able to build, one thing. Second thing is when was the last innovation made in publishing? It’s probably a 1000-year-old industry. The way we look at it – the difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing – a lot of people have a misconception around it. Taking a professional’s help to produce a book is not vanity. The reason why you publish your book, if it’s to just do things that don’t make ROI sense, that’s vanity. If you have a huge launch, where you invite your friends and family and it doesn’t any ROI value, that’s vanity. If you look at the catalogues of our services, we stay clear of anything that says vanity. But at the end of the day, just like any other platform, it’s for the user to use us the way they feel like. So, we enable them to publish books. Why they publish books, the reason would define whether it’s self or vanity publishing.

Kiruba: Got it. I can tell you from my own experience that I don’t think that I have had any big advantage having my first two books done by a traditional publisher. So, you would typically go to a publisher because they will carry the chunk of the load and I really didn’t see much value and for the kind of royalty that I was getting, it just didn’t make sense. Which is why I think there’s going to be a tectonic shift in the entire publishing industry. Let me ask you this questions – where do you see traditional publishing or publishing as an industry going ten years from now.

Naveen: I’ll answer that Kiruba. Naveen here. I think it’ll get a lot more data driven because a lot of publishers, I’m very sad to say this, but a lot of publishers who are not data-driven will not be able to sustain themselves.

Kiruba: Explain data-driven.

Naveen: As more and more books are selling on Amazon, even the decision from what other kind of books we are going to publish from a traditional publisher’s point of view, will come from the data analytics that the market throws. You have your Neilson reports, you have your Amazon data; if you’re able to pull all of that data and then find out the gaps, if you’re able to identify this is the potential market we are not addressing, or no book is addressing, that’s where you have your best-seller. That’s one thing. Second thing is, when I say data, it’s on the people’s side. So, what are people reading? The kind of analytics that have never been built in India. You must have heard of new apps like Jaggernaut that are coming up. I’m sure that soon they’ll be able to provide amazing insights into what people are clicking, what people are reading. This is the new direction for content itself. Third thing is, there’ll be more models coming in that traditional book-selling. This whole idea of creating a book into a paperback or a hardcover or an ebook and selling them is definitely going to be disruptive. We are thinking more like content complimenting something else, a service; or a service complimenting content. These are the kind of ways content is going to be sold in the future and the reason why I used the word content is because that’s a disruption we are looking at. We are not looking at books anymore, we are looking at content.

Kiruba: One final question before we wrap up. There are lots of other publishing platforms, self-publishing services. What is it that Notion Press that made you the leading publishing platform in the country and hopefully around the world as well. What is it that you guys did right that others didn’t?

Naveen: We have two kinds of these publishing platforms. Some who are very literary minded, they said that they were going the arts way. Some who are technology driven, they said they were going the tech way. So, for us, right from the team to the way we run the company, it’s an amalgamation of arts and technology. So, the way we’ve run it is the beautiful book creation part has to be very arts driven; it needs to be loved and created. All the supply-chain inefficiencies have to be gotten rid of by tech. So, that is our primary strength,

Kiruba: Awesome. That was brilliant. So, Bhargav, Jana, and Naveen, thank you very much and here’s wishing you an awesome next ten years.

Naveen: Thank you, kiruba.

Bhargav: Thank you very much, Kiruba.

Jana: Thank you, Kiruba.

[Music]

Kiruba: You were listening to the movers and shakers podcast with Kiruba Shankar. Do tune in every week to listen to one in-depth conversation with the business leaders on their journey to a successful career. You can find these podcasts on YouTube, Soundcloud, on BL and on Campus.com. Until next week, take care!

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/schoolmates-turned-co-founders-of-indias-largest-publishing-platform-share-their-success-formulas/feed/09 Book Villains We Love to Hatehttps://notionpress.com/academy/9-book-villains-we-love-to-hate/
https://notionpress.com/academy/9-book-villains-we-love-to-hate/#commentsThu, 03 Nov 2016 08:42:35 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1380Have you ever felt that you wanted to enter into the book that you are reading and kill that one character that has been snobby, annoying, and cold throughout? Yes, we have felt that way as well. From being a stone cold person to having evil motives against innocent souls, literary villains have been a ...read more

]]>Have you ever felt that you wanted to enter into the book that you are reading and kill that one character that has been snobby, annoying, and cold throughout? Yes, we have felt that way as well. From being a stone cold person to having evil motives against innocent souls, literary villains have been a pain not only to the protagonists but also to the readers.There are some really charismatic antagonists, like Bellatrix Lestrange, Damon Salvatore, Miranda Priestly, who despite being evil are too sophisticated for people to hate them. On the other hand, there are some villains on whom we would love to perform a Cruciatus Curse. Here is a list of 9 such book villains, from whom authors can draw an inspiration!

Dolores Umbridge – The Harry Potter Series

Most of us would have been unsure about whom we hate the most when we read the first book of the Harry Potter series – Severus Snape, Dursleys, or Voldemort. However, when we read the fifth book, it was clear that Dolores Umbridge is the worst of all villains the world has ever seen.

From being an evil professor, who didn’t teach what students have to learn during the dark times, to being a snobby tyrant, Dolores Umbridge gave us zillion reasons to hate her. She can give any dictator a run for his money.

Not only was she punishing Harry in the cruellest ways possible, but she even went to an extreme of making lives hell for half-breeds, Muggles, etc.

While Voldemort and Bellatrix were evil, Dolores took evilness to a new level altogether.

Iago – Othello

If you thought that literary villains these days are cruel and evil, you must read Othello. While the bard’s work is well-known for a lot of reasons, one of the most important grounds for anyone to read the book is to know how evil a person, Iago, can be.

The epitome of evilness, Iago goes to an extreme of making Othello murder his wife, Desdemona. While killing or torturing people is one kind of cruelty, making people lose trust on their beloved and in turn make them kill their own beloved is an altogether different level of sadism.

A typical example of how far a man who is driven by hatred can go in his life, Iago’s character makes you twitch in disgust.

Agatha Trunchbull – Matilda

Somehow, children’s books have the worst antagonists ever. If you thought that Dolores reminded you of every worst teacher you had in your school life, Miss. Trunchbull is twice as cruel and sadistic as Dolores.

A strong, muscular woman – Agatha Trunchbull serves as the cruel headmistress in the school where Matilda studies. With so much hatred for children and her knack for giving worst punishments, Agatha keeps both teachers and students under her feet. She is also someone who took potentially fatal disciplinary activities of her school children.

One of the cruellest literary characters ever, Agatha is someone who can give shivers to any child who reads Matilda.

The Darkling – The Grisha Trilogy

The first name that came to most people’s mind when we asked which literary villain you hate the most was “The Darkling.” For those who haven’t read the book series yet, Aleksander Morozova, popularly known as The Darkling, is the inexplicable force that leads the Grisha.

A classic example of looks can be deceiving; The Darkling is a tall, dark, handsome guy, who is capable of making anyone fall in love with him. However, as the story unveils, we realise how manipulative, two-faced, and power-hungry Aleksander is.

While we do most certainly hate him, we also can’t help but admire his personality, especially when he says the dialogue, “The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.”

Scarlett O’Hara – Gone with the Wind

Well, despite being a protagonist, Scarlett somehow finds her way into the list of book villains we hate for she was not a typical female lead that any story would have. A vain, self-centred, and spoilt girl, Scarlett, despite being intelligent, is insecure at times.

With such an adorable look and cleverness, she still chose to fall in love with one man that she cannot have. When she understands the reality, she wants to destroy the love of her life by marrying his wife’s brother.

From rejecting a guy who loved her to stealing her own sister’s happy life, Scarlett was never happy and never let anyone else be happy. Finally, when she realises that nothing goes as per she likes, she runs back to that one guy who loved her only to hear, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” in return. Maybe, that’s what Karma is.

Dorian Gray – The Picture of Dorian Gray

Another atypical protagonist who was the destroyer of his own life is Dorian Gray. A wealthy, handsome, narcissistic young man – Dorian Gray gets obsessed by his own beauty and wishes to retain it forever.

As if being enthralled by hedonism and indulging in it wasn’t creepy enough, he doesn’t use his eternal youth for positive purposes. Just when you are mesmerised by his beauty that Oscar Wilde would have described brilliantly, you will end up hating Gray for his sinful behaviour.

The story is well-portrayed, especially for a tale that involves only a protagonist with negative shades and no other principal antagonists.

If you haven’t read this book yet, you must definitely read this one, just to fall in hate with Dorian Gray.

Hannibal Lecter – The Silence of the Lambs

While he was a repeat character in most of Thomas Harris’ novels, his characterization in The Silence of the Lambs is enough to make us hate him. He was initially introduced as a forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer in the book Red Dragon.

His character in Red Dragon as well as in The Silence of the Lambs is a complete sociopath. From torturing animals to killing people in gruesome ways, he makes us feel aversion towards his character.

As if his cruel attitude wasn’t enough, he has an eidetic memory, by which he can reconstruct every memory of his to gorgeous details. In short, Hannibal not only kills people but can also rerun the whole killing again and again and relish it. Ha! As much as we hate him, his characterization is an inspiration for budding writers, who are looking to create a villain that the whole world will hate.

The dialogues of all the books where Hannibal appears are written to perfection that just reading it will make shivers run down your spine. A classic example is when Hannibal says “On a related subject, Signore Pazzi, I must confess to you: I’m giving serious thought to eating your wife” to Mr Pazzi.

Bill Sikes – Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens is known to create greedy and cold-hearted characters. Be it Ebenezer or Bill, Charles Darwin’s characterization and narration make you feel an enormous amount of hatred toward his atypical protagonists.

Known to be one of the most vicious characters that Charles Darwin ever created, he is known to be the one who loves to control people. He is not only an expert when it comes to having power over somebody, but is also a professional in harming others. If sadism is your thing, then you might like him. Otherwise, in all forms of reality, he is one of the most hateable characters that we can ever come across.

In fact, Charles Dickens’ first description of Bill Sikes character itself is enough to make us hate him:

“The man who growled out these words, was a stoutly-built fellow of about five-and-thirty, in a black velveteen coat, very soiled drab breeches, lace-up half boots, and grey cotton stockings which enclosed a bulky pair of legs, with large swelling calves—the kind of legs, which in such costume, always look in an unfinished and incomplete state without a set of fetters to garnish them. He had a brown hat on his head, and a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck: with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke. He disclosed, when he had done so, a broad heavy countenance with a beard of three weeks’ growth, and two scowling eyes; one of which displayed various parti-coloured symptoms of having been recently damaged by a blow.”

Lucy Steele – Sense & Sensibility

What is it with vamps and stealing other people’s love interest? Well, if Scarlett seemed crazy to you, we don’t know what you can call Lucy. Despite appearing only for a short time in the novel, Lucy makes us hate her for life.

While Willoughby was more evil and annoying, his charm made us love him, and as the story moved towards the climax, his confession made us feel a little pity. However, Lucy Steele was one person who we can never sympathise or empathise with. From lying to creating misunderstandings between Edward and Elinor, she did every cheap thing that a person can do.

Didn’t you all have a sigh of relief when she was turned out of the house? Well, it was short-lived when she again entered the Ferrars household by marrying Robert Ferrars.

With Jane Austen’s brilliant story narration and characterization of Lucy Steele, we are bound to hate her more when we read the book than when we watch the movie.

These were some of the villains we love to hate to the core. In case, you are planning to write a book with a strong antagonist, reading these books can be really helpful. Who are the literary villains that you hate with all your life? Share the list with us on the comments section below.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/9-book-villains-we-love-to-hate/feed/0Chanakya Radhakrishnan’s Secrets to Prolific Book Writinghttps://notionpress.com/academy/chanakya-radhakrishnans-secrets-to-prolific-book-writing/
https://notionpress.com/academy/chanakya-radhakrishnans-secrets-to-prolific-book-writing/#commentsThu, 27 Oct 2016 11:57:48 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1372The transcript: [Music] Kiruba: Hi there! If you’re here, there’s a good chance that you’re interested in becoming an author or you’re already one. Good choice because this is one of the very few dedicated podcast shows that is meant for aspiring authors. This is where you can learn from bestselling global authors on how they ...read more

Kiruba: Hi there! If you’re here, there’s a good chance that you’re interested in becoming an author or you’re already one. Good choice because this is one of the very few dedicated podcast shows that is meant for aspiring authors. This is where you can learn from bestselling global authors on how they made it successful in book writing. This podcast is supported by Notion Press, one of India’s largest publishing houses. It is also home to over 40,000 members, who are passionate about their written work. In today’s episode, our guest is someone who is absolutely obsessed and crazy about Chanakya – the famed Indian philosopher and a royal adviser. Radhakrishnan Pillai is the Founder Director of Chanakya Institute of Public Leadership – a research based organisation that is working to promote Indian concepts in management. Radhakrishnan Pillai is better known as Chanakya Pillai because almost all his books and teachings are centred around the famed Indian philosopher. He is a certified management consultant with over 20 years of experience and has trained professionals in over 200 organizations. He is the Director of SPM Foundation and Founder Director of Atma Darshan – a spiritual tourism company. He has been awarded the prestigious Sardar Patel International Award for his research and contribution in the field of management and industrial development. Let’s now listen to Chanakya Radhakrishnan Pillai.

[Music]

Kiruba: Radhakrishnan, thank you so much for coming on this show and first of all, I love your fascination for Chanakya.

Radhakrishnan: Thank you. Thank you so much, Kiruba for making me part of this podcast and it’s a pleasure to get connected to all the listeners over here.

Kiruba: Not only you are the director of the Chanakya Institute of Public Relationships, you’ve authored multiple books using Chanakya as the central theme. In fact, your email id has the word Chanakya in it. So, can you explain to us why do you have such fascination for Chanakya?

Radhakrishnan: Actually, everybody would have a fascination for a person like Chanakya. The only difference is that I tried to do a little bit more in-depth to understand who this great person Chanakya was. So long in the Indian history, there have been various heroes and heroines, of course, who have changed and made a mark in our history and have impacted thought processes worldwide. Among those stalwarts, one of them is of course Chanakya. So, like anybody in India, I’ve heard about him and came to know a little bit about him. But then I started doing a little bit of a research on his book called Kautilya’s Arthashastra and that’s where I started understanding the person much more in detail, his thought process, his teachings, and his knowledge in detail. By that time, you get more and more interested that you start realising that wow, there’s this great particular person, who has been totally unexplored in our generation. So, my fascination is only growing day by day and it continues even today. So, be it my email id or be it whatever I do, the name Chanakya has become so one with me that probably I think, eat, and drink Chanakya every time.

Kiruba: Interesting! Very interesting. Now, suppose a foreigner, who does not know about Indian mythology, and if he came and asked you who was Chanakya, what would be your simple explanation?

Radhakrishnan: That’s typically what I do in my travels abroad. These foreigners always like to have a much more background of the person whom they are discussing and talking about. So, my first typical introduction will be a historical character, who lived in the fourth century BC in India. He was a kingmaker, strategist, etc., of an empire and a student called Chandragupta Maurya and finally I would go on to tell that he was a great author who wrote the book Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

Kiruba: Got it. Talking of books, you’ve authored multiple books. Can you tell us about how many books you’ve authored, sir?

Radhakrishnan: So, I have already and published three books and I am currently writing eighteen different books on Chanakya.

Kiruba: What! Did you say eighteen? [Laughs]

Radhakrishnan: Yes! one-eight eighteen and I think that is just still the tip of the iceberg.

Kiruba: Wow! This is no longer fascination for Chanakya. This is obsession.

Radhakrishnan: [Laughs] I would say this is research which is just coming out with so many multiple dimensions.

KIruba: Very interesting. Your first book – Corporate Chanakya – is a bestseller. In fact, it is actually used as a reference book in many business schools. I am a professor in a couple of B-schools as well. So, it is very fascinating. In fact, it is so fascinating that the book was actually made into an audio book as well. So, let’s begin there. How did your first journey into authoring begin?

Radhakrishnan: So, a lot of people tell stories about they want to author a book and you know they write a book and then find a publisher. In my case, it has been extremely opposite. The publishers actually found me and they asked me to write a book. So, let me tell you the story. It so happened that I’ve been speaking on Chanakya for quite a few years – almost fifteen years now. And then what happened was in one of the talks that I was doing in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, I was speaking on Arthashastra. A group of people came and said, “Oh, you speak on Chanakya. Can you write on Chanakya?” Then I said, “What does it mean?” They said, “We are a publishing company called Jaico. We know that you have the subject expertise. We don’t mind publishing your book if you can give some book in return form. We will be happy to publish that. So, while most of the author write the books and then find publishers, for me, I actually got the publisher first and then I started writing. So, in that way, I would say that I’ve been an author who has been blessed by God to actually write bestsellers even before I thought I should write a book and make it a bestseller.

Kiruba: Look at that! The whole world is conspiring to make you good.

Radhakrishnan: And thanks to friends like you, who make me famous also.

Kiruba: Very true. That’s very interesting, you know, you said that you are truly blessed and that’s the blessing that not many are gifted that way. But one important lesson I can get from you is that if you are really passionate about a subject and if you really go in-depth into a subject, that itself is an invitation for success, right? It’s because of your obsession and your depth of knowledge about Chanakya – that has what made the publishers reach out to you. Correct? So, the lesson is that, everybody has an area of interest and if they can really excel in that area, I think that’s a great route for them to get invited by the publishers. Would you agree?

Radhakrishnan: Absolutely. Absolutely. Today is an era of super-specialisation. So, if you have a niche area in which you have an expertise and probably, you know, you are mould for it then I think you attract not only publishers, I mean, for me, it was like going into depth of Chanakya and everything else came in as a byproduct.

Kiruba: Now that you’ve authored books, how do you think the books have helped you in your professional space?

Radhakrishnan: So, let me tell you that there are three books that I’ve already written. I’ll talk about my eighteen books later on. So, my first book was Corporate Chanakya; the second book was Chanakya – The Seven Secrets of Leadership and the third was Chanakya in You. Now all these put together, I have officially sold, when I say I have sold, I mean the whole sales figure has crossed more than 3.5 lakh copies.

Kiruba: Impressive!

Radhakrishnan: Now, I am only talking about the official figures. More than double of their figures have been sold as pirated copies also. So, what has happened in my case is that the books being bestsellers and it has been able to reach a wide level of audience, especially, in the corporate world and the academic world. There is an Indian-ness to the word Chankya in the person called Chanakya. So, what has happened is that when people started reading the book, books are not like newspaper articles, they store it, they display it, they keep it on the shelves, and they refer to it. So, what has happened is that my first book came in the year 2010 and from 2010 onward, it has been a journey where it has helped me reach out to more than hundreds and thousands of organisations. I’ve directly spoken to more than one lakh people. I’ve travelled fourteen countries. So, if you look at it, you know, these books have made me to reach out to maximum people, professionally and also as a mission to spread Chanakya.

Kiruba: Brilliant. In fact, when you said that your books are pirated;

Radhakrishnan: Am I audible?

Kiruba: Yes, you are. In fact, I have seen your books being sold by pavement dwellers and these are people who would sell pirated books. In my opinion, seeing your book out there is the ultimate show that you have arrived, right? Because only good books are pirated!

Radhakrishnan: Yeah. There’s a saying in Hindi – Akal ki nakal hoti hai. This means only which is good gets duplicated. So, I am fortunate to write a few books and they have all been pirated and have become bestsellers.

Kiruba: Very nice. Very happy for you. Now, let’s talk about your next eighteen books that is absolutely fascinating.

Radhakrishnan: So, my next eighteen books, out of which four books have already been completed and I am currently writing the fifth book. All of them will come in less than one year’s time. So, let me give you an idea of this next five books. The first book that is getting ready is called Katha Chanakya. There are thirty stories of Chanakya teaching strategies to his students like Chandragupta Maurya. This book is going to be very different from my previous book. In fact, all of my books are different from each other. So, the next book called Katha Chanakya has got thirty small, small stories which are something can be read by a family, a child, a father, a grandfather, even an academic teacher, a scholar, or even corporate guy. But there are wisdom that have been derived from these stories like the Akbar Birbal kind of the sotries. The next book that I’ve written is called Chanakya in Daily Life. Chanakya in Daily Life is an interesting book because I had simplified Chanakya to the masses of what can be done using Chanakya’s techniques on a day-to-day basis. Be it as an individual, a family person, or a professional, there are various steps like what time to get up in the morning, what to do, what kind of an attitude you should have at your workplace, how you should bring up your children, and more. These are small, simple tips but they are very essential that we can practice in day-to-day basis. The third book that I have just completed is called Anvikshiki – the Science of Thinking. So, it’s a different book, again. It’s called Inside Chanakya’s mind – the Art of Thinking and the fourth book that I have completed is called A Rajarishi – the Ideal King according to Chanakya. The fifth book that I am writing is again very different and first time I am trying a non-Chanakya book. It is called How to Write a Book and make it a Bestseller. So, if you look at it, I am trying very different possibilities of Chanakya and also people want me to share how I write books and how I make it a bestseller. So, there are five different offerings coming up this particular year. Apart from that, I am writing eight textbooks, which are basically for academic reasons because I am also a professor and teacher at the University of Mumbai and I head a department which is introducing leadership as a subject. So, these next eight books are basically for academic purposes and textbooks on Arthashastra. And of course, the remaining will be other types like the concept of Rajamandala theory, 365 days Chanakya, etc. There is a huge offering that’s coming up in the next one and two years.

Kiruba: The most important one is how the hell can you be so prolific? And let me tell you that, right, the reason I am asking this is because many of us who are listening to this podcast struggle to bring out a single book. When you’re here, you’re so matter-of-factly saying you’re working on eighteen books as if you just ordered ignitor the strong. [Laughs] So, explain that.

Radhakrishnan: So, first of all, let me also add that I am not a full-time author either.

Kiruba: Well, that was my suspicion, right? Only a full-time author, who can really spend so much time; a little later I also wanted to quiz you on how do you manage your time. But first, yeah, please go ahead.

Radhakrishnan: So, my point is basically, it is not whether you are a full-time author or a part-time author that you write so many kinds of books. I know a lot of my friends, who are full-time authors but, you know, they struggle to write one or two books a year also. So, I will tell you the secret of writing multiple books. The first secret is that you should do a lot of research on your subject. That is very, very essential. Please note that my books are not fiction books; they are very, very researched-based books and as you rightly pointed out, they are used as academic textbooks in various business schools and management institutions in India and abroad. So, one of the central themes of all my books, even though I use stories and anecdotes, is there is a lot of research that has gone into that. So, what has happened is that if you are writing so many books, you need to have a thorough knowledge on the subject. There are a lot of people who write fiction books and I like them but, you know, those are imaginary books. But this is imagination plus research. So, number one is that you need to have a lot of solid research base. I have been doing that for the last 15 years. Somewhere the content has been there with me throughout. The next part is that it’s like going to a supermarket, where there are hundreds of options available to us. So, your mind, your research, and your knowledge base have to be like a supermarket, where you have 10,000 things ready to choose from. Depending on what you want, it’s like carrying a basket in the supermarket and you know I want twenty different kinds of biscuits with the ten thousand available. So, you just pick and choose and put into one box. Then the next box is you pick and choose some soaps and toothpaste and in the next box, you pick and choose probably some vegetables and fruits. So, that’s the kind of a thing that I do. You know, I have done a study on the 6,000 sutras of the Arthashastra. I have done my Ph.D, I guide students and teachers. You know the knowledge base has been very much available to me in a very broad term. So, when a book has to be written, the good part is that each book is 250-300 pages. So, you have to just 6,000 sutras, you have to bring out a little bit and convert them into 250 pages. So, that’s not really difficult.

Kiruba: Interesting. So, what you are saying is that I really like the analogy – the supermarket analogy. Over a period of time, as and when you get ideas, when you put them in the right basket; in this case, each basket is a book and that’s how you fill up materials for all these books. Once you have your research done, you just have to jump into the writing part as such.

Radhakrishnan: Absolutely. So, writing is the smallest part that you do. I would say if you’ve to write a book, I think writing just takes 5% of the time. The research, the reading, and the thinking, those are what that take you know the real 95% of the time.

Kiruba: Wow! I think this is the biggest takeaway from me and I think this will be the biggest takeaway for everyone who is listening to the podcast. It’s the absolute emphasis on research and its time very well spent. That’s the biggest takeaway. Now, talk to me about how you manage time. You have a full-time job and I see you are traveling as well. Tell me about how you manage.

Radhakrishnan: Yeah, so it’s simple. I do multiple things. In fact, I don’t work at Mumbai University as a job. I am a full-time faculty as an ordinary person who believes that teaching is more a passion for me. So, I have a responsibility of being a deputed director at the Chanakya courses that we do at Mumbai University. I run multiple business, I do talks, seminars, I write books, I run quite a few business also. But what is very common is that everything that I do, I look at probably you know on a mission to do [Sentence lost in editing]. So, what I do is that inspite of all my busy schedule, I make it a point that I write for at least one hour a day. So, sometimes, it goes up to three hours, sometimes its one hour, and sometimes its half an hour because it’s the regular discipline of everyday writing a few pages on a daily basis. So, 365 days you think about you know you have spent 600 hours of writing. So, that’s the way saying that small, small bits actually add up. There’s a saying that if you want to get work done, give it to the most busiest man. When somebody wants me to write a book, I immediately say yes. I look at the project and manage the time schedules and I can bring out a book in a matter of one or one and a half month as per the requirement as well. So, time management, the discipline, and making sure your content in research is strong.

Kiruba: Yes. So, two important takeaways that I found. One is developing a habit of daily writing and the second one is invest at least one or two hours a day and in a year, suddenly it balloons up to a large number. You know, 600 hours is quite a lot for an author and you can actually give this done without having to really over-straining yourself. How do you manage to make sure that a lot of people buy your book. It is very impressive that together you’ve sold over 3.5 lakh books and because you go and speak at a lot of places, people would listen to it and be interesting in buying the book. But apart from these, are there any other marketing techniques that has really worked for you?

Radhakrishnan: Yeah, I think every author has to know two things – one is the writing part and the second is the sales and marketing part of it. And unlike a movie, which is marketed only on the day of the release, or maybe one month around that, we need to market for at least one or one and a half years per book. I believe that once you’ve got a book, you need to be on the road and be talking to people, it is available for me, be it my publisher’s sales person, be it the bookstores like Crosswords and Landmarks and Sapnas. So, what I do is I spend a lot of quality time with them, trying to make them understand the quality of the books. I build relationships first and of course, I am very active on the social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube. So, I would say that on an average, at least, every day I would be having three to four different meetings where my books are discussed, the strategies of Chanakya discussed, and indirectly what happens is that it creates a word-of-mouth publicity. So, let’s say I am sitting in the University and speak about my book. If I’m giving a lecture, I speak about my book. If I’m writing an email, there would be a mention about the book. If I’m posting something on Facebook or Twitter, there will be something about the book. So, continuously create an ecosystem, where everybody who connects to you will be at least discussing about the book. So, over a period of time, it’s like the snowball – the first day you do it, the second day you do it, imagine you’re doing it for a complete whole one year. So, what happens is it creates a momentum and a ripple effect that everybody is talking about it. Let me give you one example – last year, I did hundred launches of one book called Chanakya in You, which is my third book. Hundred physical launches of a single author; it’s almost like a world-record.

Kiruba: Wow! That is absolutely super impressive.

Radhakrishnan: Actually, it’s not a book of the past, it’s a very light book. So, I think every author should be able to make sure of two roles – one is the writing part of it and marketing part of it. We need to balance both.

Kiruba: Excellent! So, one last question before we wrap up. Do you have a big number as a goal in life? You know, I want to author X number of books in my lifetime. Do you have such kind of goals?

Radhakrishnan: Yeah, yeah! I already discussed with my publishers, which is 400 books.

Kiruba: [Laughs] Wow! You are very, very impressive. And I love the fact with what confidence you say that. I don’t believe you.

Radhakrishnan: I will tell you, it’s very logical. It’s not that I am throwing off some numbers. I worked out. I got already 300 of those books ready in my mind. The thing that the remaining 100 will happen. I know it’s very practical because I am 40 years old and in the next 20 or 25 years, I can easily write 400 books. So, that’s not really a problem.

Kiruba: Wow! That is like, I am like, absolutely stunned and I am equally impressed as well. So, I think this is probably most unique interview with any author around the world that I have had. I have to tell you that you are an absolutely impressive person. Thank you for the rubbing off that intensity and the passion. Really, it has been such a pleasure.

Radhakrishnan: Thank you so much, Kiruba. I am so happy to have been part of this particular interview.

]]>https://notionpress.com/academy/chanakya-radhakrishnans-secrets-to-prolific-book-writing/feed/0Zoe McKey, Amazon’s Number 1 Selling Self-help Author, offers Authoring Tipshttps://notionpress.com/academy/zoe-mckey-amazons-number-1-selling-self-help-author-offers-authoring-tips/
https://notionpress.com/academy/zoe-mckey-amazons-number-1-selling-self-help-author-offers-authoring-tips/#commentsWed, 26 Oct 2016 12:27:20 +0000https://notionpress.com/academy/?p=1370The Transcript: [Music] Kiruba: Hello and welcome to a special edition of the First Book Podcast, where we get to listen to Amazon’s number one selling self-help author Zoe McKey. But first, what is this first book podcast? It is the only podcast show that is targeted at aspiring authors. This is where we get to ...read more

Kiruba: Hello and welcome to a special edition of the First Book Podcast, where we get to listen to Amazon’s number one selling self-help author Zoe McKey. But first, what is this first book podcast? It is the only podcast show that is targeted at aspiring authors. This is where we get to listen to global best-selling authors tell us how they cracked their book and they let us in on secrets and techniques to help you realise your dream of finishing your book. This podcast is generously supported by Notion Press, one of the fastest growing publishing companies with global aspirations. They help authors with publishing, book printing and distribution in over a 100 companies. Zoe McKey is the author of seven books and the eighth book is scheduled for launch at the time of recording this podcast. Like I said, earlier, she has been Amazon.com’s number one bestselling self-help author. She is a communications coach but teaches interpersonal and social skills internationally and spends her time between Romania and the United States. Let’s listen to Zoe McKey.

[Music]

Kiruba: Zoe, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the first book podcast. Thank you so much for joining it.

Zoe: Oh, I owe the pleasure for inviting me. It’s a great honour to share my experience to the people of India and everybody who listens to this podcast.

Kiruba: Excellent! So, you’re currently in San Francisco as you are speaking now; is that right?

Zoe: Yes, I have the privilege to be here right now. I’m very happy about it. It’s an amazing city.

Kiruba: That’s right. So, you’ve authored quite a few books and right now, as I’m speaking, I’m on your Amazon page and I see at least about 6 books. Is that right, Zoe?

Zoe: Well, actually I’ve published seven books until this point and I’m about to publish by my 8th book, which will come out in two weeks.

Kiruba: Wow! That’s quite close; that’s excellent. So, my first question – I’m sure this is the question on many of the listeners’ mind – is that how did you get your first book out? And what was the first book?

Zoe: Well, my first book is a little bit of a summary of all the experiences I gathered in my life to that point that I actually wrote the book. What motivated me the most in writing it – well, many things simultaneously, to be honest; personal reasons on one hand and on the other hand, something more. So, beyond personal reasons, which was more like the genuine feeling to help people. Like I have most journal entries and I was doing two jobs simultaneously, which was very, very tiring for me. So, I was already thinking about moving to the next level, to doing something with all the experience that I gathered in my life so far and to share it with multiple people. I was actually working in a small company…uh…where I was a communications coach and also at the same time, I was a listener. So, all the people I coached I also listened to them. I got familiar with their problems, I gathered a lot of experience in my life, in other fields too, not just my job and I felt that I have a calling for this. So, I think, on the other hand, that there are never enough people with a positive attitude, who can step on a greater stage and share empowering thoughts for the others. So, I was like, why not? I mean, I have nothing to lose to put together a book. So, I just felt that I would be at that point in a month or two months in my life, with or without writing the book, where I will be. So, it makes no difference if I write it, actually or not. And then, I just got an opportunity, where I got familiar with Amazon and I could publish it and I was like, “Sure, Let’s go for it.”

Kiruba: Got it. And what’s the title of your first book?

Zoe: Unbreakable Confidence. [smiles]

Kiruba: Got it. Is it because you already had the habit of journaling daily, like writing your own diary on an everyday basis, was that the one that helped you publish Unbreakable Confidence?

Zoe: It helped a lot because I did not have to mismatch too much with the information. I mostly knew what the book will be about and mostly knew where to position it, what’s the market for it, which is also very important, like what’s the purpose of the book, especially, nonfiction. If you write a nonfiction, you always need to have a purpose like what will you help people with, what are the pinpoints of the people you write for, who is your target audience, and I knew that for me, there are those people who have trouble with communication, they have trouble with self-esteem,uh, it was pretty easy actually to put together the book in this regard like in the regard of just writing it information wise. But I had more challenges with, uh, it was that I was not a native English speaker, so, I had big language gap and never published anything before online. So, I had to overcome this personal fear limiting belief that I won’t be able to actually put together a book in English for an English market.

Kiruba: So, how did you overcome that fear?

Zoe: I hired a native speaker-editor. It was so simple. For all the people who are not native English speakers, there’s no reason for them to not write a book for an English market, for example, the US market is a very competitive one; it’s a very good place to start at, I think, Amazon. Even though they don’t even speak English, you just write your book in your native language, you get a translator, then you get an editor, or if you’re lucky enough, the translator and the editor is the same person and you just do it. So, there are so many excuses that can pop up in people’s minds because I had them, too, which can deter them from writing a boo. But you have to overcome these excuses because you will not simply just go forward and you will regret at the end of your life that you might have had this chance but you didn’t take it.

Kiruba: Absolutely. Absolutely said! In fact, this is probably the biggest takeaway because a lot of people who try writing, even the simplest of obstacles come their way; for example, many people fear that they are not very good at writing and hence they cannot be an author. They all fear that what if people laugh at them? What if people one star reviews on Amazon; you know, all these things kind of keep people away and I think your point where you don’t have to worry about English; after all, English is just a language, right? It’s not knowledge. So, if you can just put your knowledge in your native language, you can always professionals to help translate or edit. I think it’s a brilliant point, Zoe.

Zoe: Yes, I think there is always a way. There is no impossible. Just be bold, who are not daring to do it. By the way, you mentioned about one star reviews on Amazon; actually, for me, they are sometimes very instructive, like, of course, if I get one star reviews on Amazon like very bad, boring, that is not helpful, that is not constructive; but if somebody has a good argument like why he or she didn’t find good points in my book or what was offending or even insensitive because of course I don’t know all the things in the world. So, I might hit some weak points of people like I got a review once from a religious person that I used the name of a god recklessly and first I was, of course, very annoyed by it like how dare he could be writing me this; but then I was thinking that maybe for those people, for whom this has a meaning more than for me, it might be offensive. My point is not to offend people. So, since then I tried to not put so many religious aspects or not even oh my god in my book because I feel that I might just simply offend them. It’s not my point and if I can pay attention on that then why not. Sometimes, one star reviews can be instructive actually. So, if we try to not approach everything what is negative in a negative way but try to take out the lessons from it, it’s already a plus, which can give you more in future.

Kiruba: Good point, Zoe. Now, after you published your first book, obviously, you must have seen some kinds of benefits, which are what must have motivated you to go ahead and author the rest of the books that you did. So, what are some of the benefits that you’ve seen from your books.

Zoe: Ummm, well, it changed my life. I mean, after publishing my first book, publishing at Amazon, it’s like technically no investment. So, you can publish a book on Amazon if you are good enough in English for $0, literally. I was taking a lot of trouble to learn every aspect of publishing a book – from designing covers to editing the structure of my own book; so that took me a lot of time but at the end, it was a good skill to have because technically, I could reduce the cost in the beginning and okay, the editor costs some money but if somebody doesn’t need even an editor, then it can be like no-brainer’s thing to do. Then, when I saw that there’s actually potential in it and people liked my writing, of course, I was very motivated to write another book because I wrote something called Unbreakable Confidence, which covered the small field of the confidence area but it was not everything. So, I was thinking that what if maybe the person who reads my book doesn’t have that specific problem I discussed in that book? Another angle from the same confidence problem, so I wrote Build a Bridge on how to be persistent and how to go on in life, which is a bit more different than talking generally about fear of guilt or fear of judgement. So, yeah, I wrote my next book and then it just became somehow massive that I had new ideas which I couldn’t cover in a 100-page book. So, they came in, came in, came in! Yes, my life changed. I could leave all my two jobs and I am now an entrepreneur – I review the books and I do private coaching. So, I don’t have to wake up at eight anymore and I am the master of my own time. So, I think if you put an effort in it, it can get you a very trouble-free life.

Kiruba: I love it – master of your own time. I mean look at the… I mean…and I love the attitude with which you said. I mean, isn’t that so liberating, Zoe? For you?

Zoe: Yes, it is absolutely gorgeous. But also, I feel that now I am doing it almost for a year. In the beginning, when I just left my two jobs, I was very confused on what to do with so much freedom which I got. [Laughs] Sounds a bit hypocritical but trust me, it is very challenging to wake yourself up at 9’o clock, even though you know you don’t have to wake up at 9’o clock. But if you don’t wake up at 9’o clock and if you don’t start writing – you don’t start doing your research -, you will end up doing nothing at the day and at the end of the month, you will behind your schedule. And if you are behind your schedule for a long time, it won’t bring you money. So, when you’re the master of your own time and life, it means that literally there’s nothing else there. Just you and your will power, whether or not you have it; and the more will power you have, the further you will go.

Kiruba: You’re right, you’re right! It’s beautifully, you know, well positioned for me to ask the next question, which is how is your daily routine? You know! So, you’ve authored a book called Daily Routine makeover and incidentally, I just purchased your book now, Zoe – as we were speaking. Tell us about your daily writing routine and what others can learn from your habit.

Zoe: Okay. Briefly about Daily Routine Makeover, it was, like again, a personal experience I felt just like I told you, I was procrastinating a lot – like, a lot in the beginning. I was like, “Okay, I have time for that. I can just do that.” Actually, when I had two books in the market, I was more successful than when I had four books in the market. And I was surprised like, “Wow, what happened here!” What I saw was that I had lost interest in a few days because I started being very confident and comfortable in that situation. I reached a new comfort zone and I had to kick out myself from there. That’s when I started writing procastrination book about daily routines, how to change them, and how to stay on the target. As I wrote this book, I simultaneously developed a new system in my life like I have actually many, many plans. I have a big year plan like I have all my wardrobe exposed on what I have to do on a monthly basis to December, this year. So, I have everything – each and every step – I have to make until December and I have to make it done. Then I have all my computer a little posted, where I have my weekly plan. And a week’s plan is divided into daily plans and I have every day. I have four major task I have to complete, which includes writing, researching, designing, and marketing. I very strictly follow these plans. I think that if somebody wants to do something on teh business level with writing because it is providing my livelihood, I have to think more like beyond all the writing. One has to have a very clear purpose, a very clear goal, where he wants to reach in a year, or two years, or next month. So, without a plan, doing things like, I don’t know – now I do this, now I do that – you get lost in information. So, my advice is to have a very clear schedule about what you want to accomplish.

Kiruba: Got it. It also looks like you wrote this book for yourself, you know, because you felt like needed discipline, you started research and I think the book helped you as much as it is going to help others.

Zoe: Yes. Actually, it might be true but at the end of the day, people who write non-fiction, mostly, the ground-zero, where they start the book from is their own experience. What they experienced to go wrong or what they want to change about themselves also initially and also about others because at the end of the day, we have similar problems like I was working when I was younger in a car factory and I was talking there with a worker like absolutely blue-collared workers with a very limited life. But they were super-nice people. They had some problems and then I was going to conference in Malaga Lakes when I was working as a translator. Actually, I met an Indian gentleman, who was a billionaire like he was very, very rich and noticed that he had more or less the same problems as the car factory workers. So, then I realised that yes, their problems, my problems, and the billionaires’ problems are not very different. So, if I write about, let’s say, procrastination because I felt that I procrastinated, probably would cover the problems of millions of other people. And if from those millions of those other people, 1000 get to catch up on my thoughts and they accept my viewpoint and they accept it and they follow it and they defeat procrastination, it’s already a huge success I think.

Kiruba: Got it. So, Zoe, in your outlet, take us into your daily life and how does Zoe write ever day? Do you allocate times in the morning, in the evening? What is your daily schedule of writing like?

Zoe: It totally depends. So, since I am living in San Francisco, I tend to wake up pretty early because I have a yoga class every morning. I do this yoga class, I empty my mind – it’s very, very useful, it takes me to a meditation stage – and after I finish this at 10.00 am, I always go to a cafe, every time in a different cafe but I attend working cafes, because working at home makes you lazy, gives you excuses. You can do so many other things at home. So, I tend to go to an office, which in my case is a cafe. From 10.00 am until I write out every thing from my head, I tend to not stop. I just have coffee after coffee and I write, write, write for three or four or one hours – what I feel comfortable with until the point I feel that I am productive and I am actually delivering a message. Then I just do other things. As I told you, I have four tasks every day and I tend to start it with writing to have the clearest mind for the writing and the rest like design, marketing, and things like that can come afterwards because they don’t need such an intense focus like as writing, in my opinion.

Kiruba: Got it. On an interesting note, Zoe, there is this app called coffeetivity, which is an app that you can download on your iOS or Android and that mimics the sound of coffee shops.

Zoe: Oh, really! I have one similar of this which is the rainy mood that comes, which makes the sound of the rain. For me, the rain is very chilling and very meditative state again and it’s very good. But I will check out this one definitely.

Kiruba: Yes, it’s called Coffeetivity. My favorite is actually jungle sounds and that are something that actually help me in concentration, you know, that deep flow. It really helps. I think that is something that is very useful for a wannabe writers. Do you recommend those?

Zoe: Yes, absolutely. I didn’t know about this but I will definitely check it. I also use my rainy moods to just disconnect and sometimes, I listen to music. When I want to do like a very big energy booster parts of my book, I put some music of the 80s like ACDC or something very crazy to take me to that mood, to be able to write about that mood. But generally, I am very chilled when I am writing.

Kiruba: Hmm. So, good to see the San Francisco sounds.

Zoe: [Laughs] Oh, yeah? I think it’s a fire station close to us and all the time, these firefighter cars are scintillating loud sounds.

Kiruba: Got it. Oh no, no need. It just adds to the ambience of the podcast. Now what are some of the challenges, you know, that inspite of writing five or seven books, I am sure you face your own challenges as a writer, as an author. What are those challenges?

Zoe: Umm, well, my number one challenge was to defeat this native, like this language gap I was talking about earlier. My other challenge is sometimes that I have to keep up like I have this schedule. Sometimes it’s not that easy you know. So, if you go the gym, you know that sometimes it’s so good to go down to the gym and just have a workout. But on the other days, you absolutely hate it. There are so many other things; just not going to the gym. This is the same with writing for me. Sometimes, you have to accept that you just simply don’t have the mood to do it and there are two parts which are offers generally to choose. One part is that they just stop and they wait for that mood to come back and to write in that mood in the zone or they just overcome this feeling of unpleasantness and they write it anyway and I tend to be of the second type because I know very well that even if I don’t have the mood, after half an hour of going very slowly with the thing, I eventually get in that mood. I get in the zone and the engine starts. So, sometimes, if you have an author’s block – it’s not an author’s block, it’s hidden procrastination is what I think. It’s like, “Yes, today maybe I want to do something else,” but no. If you’re devoted to what you want to do, you just have to stick to the plan and sometimes, it gives me challenges to overcome myself. Again, the freedom which I got like I know that it will be no concept once in short-term if I don’t do that. So, yes, this is a challenge to overcome this laziness.

Kiruba: Got it. I’m actually hearing this answer from you really makes me glad because there are many times I have procrastinated and always felt a little bad when the mood for writing doesn’t comes, sometimes, days in a row. So, I know that this is natural. Sometimes, we just have to face it and you know, these are cycles of moods and it will bounce back. So, Zoe, your eighth book is going to come out in two week’s time. Have you got a life plan? Do you have a master plan – what is called the BHAG the bhag plan, the big goal to author X number of books before you die? Do you have some kind of a goal like that?

Zoe: Umm, actually, I do! I want to be the author with the most books published in the world. Nope, that’s not true! [Laughs] In the short term – one or two years – I would like to produce as many books as possible to cover in a whole this, like same, my picture about confidence. And I would like to reach more and more people with it and I would like to have my audience – those people who can relate to live with my stuff and then I would like to take it to the next level like I would really like to meet all these people I helped with my book, personally. So, keeping smaller or bigger conferences, coaching sessions, courses even; so, let’s say I would like to be a bit more personal. Not just a face on the book’s cover and just words and somebody behind those words but actually be out there, help people, and reach out for them directly. So, this is my big plan for the future. You know Tommy Robbins jumping and cheering and making people happy. Something like that!

Kiruba: Excellent! That’s wonderful. Have you had any interesting experiences because of your book? This could be getting a huge client or somebody recognising you at an airport or some kind of an interesting experience that you’ve faced.

Zoe: Actually, I did. I did multiple. My best experiences are those everyday small experiences which I get when I get a letter from one of my readers. I am very open. In each and every one of my book, I have my email address, my personal email address, and also my website so people can contact me very easily if they want to. And they do, like, every day I get at least one email and those people contact me and tell me that my book helped me in one way or another and it’s a wonderful feeling to just get from random places of the world – messages like yes, thank you, you were helpful and it just warms my heart. It’s a very nice feeling indeed. Also, through my books, I got to know very interesting people, who I might have not been able to know if I wouldn’t have these books and success on the other hand, like I know. In my home-country, there is a famous guy, who is like sort of Tommy Robbins of our country and I just met him a few weeks ago and I was like, forgive me for five minutes but I would just stare at you. [Laughs] But the guy was super open, super nice, laid back and I just realised that he is also just the person like anybody else. Just behind this hype and fame and everything, there is just a person, a normal one, and I was so honoured to meet him and I was very, very happy. So, maybe, this is another big point I feel I realised, thanks to the books.

Kiruba: Excellent. Excellent. So, I noticed, Zoe, that almost all your books are published in Kindle, except the one book which is Build Grit. That’s the only one that I find in paperback. So, did you consciously choose to go with self-publishing on Amazon or did you at least even try to get the traditional method of publishing?

Zoe: Umm, actually, Build Grit has to have a Kindle version as well. If it doesn’t, I will have to check Amazon because they did some weird thing. Generally, I have all my books in Kindle and also on paperback on Createspace. Answering your question, no, I never contacted an actual publisher in the English field. I had a very good friend, who was already publishing books on Amazon and he helped me with this to publish books on Amazon. So, I never ever thought about any other options other than Amazon because as I told you, cost-free, easy, and without a risk – sometimes it is very good to take a risk – but in this case, it was like, “Okay, so what I publish the book and in the worst case no body will buy it?” I had no investment and I just wrote it. Recently, I got some offers from different countries to translate my books and those are publishers – like – actual publishing houses. But they always reached out to me; I never reached out to a publisher. Yes. I am fine with Amazon actually.

Kiruba: Yeah! I am a huge fan of Amazon and I think it has really opened up opportunities for a lot of writers, who otherwise would have never stood a chance with a traditional publisher, right? So, this is a beautiful way for you to test your writing, for you to really showcase your writing skills, and to prove your worth. Once you prove your worth, just like in your lines Zoe, now, other publishers are reaching out to you and the same thing will happen for other authors as well.

Zoe: Yes. Yes. I think that Amazon is the perfect way to start for an individual, who happens to be a normal, mortal being, not a superstar, who will be like financed anyway. So, for people like us, Amazon is the perfect place to start. It’s like low-risk, high possibilities and chances to be good and yes, it’s very simple. It is very straightforward to upload the book there. So, it’s not like rocket-science. It is very, very user-friendly platform, I think.

Kiruba: Got it. Now, let’s talk about marketing as well. How do you spread the word about your books?

Zoe: Um, Through my research, I found some promotion tools for the books like Robin Reads and Buck Books. There are plenty in the US, to whom you can contact. By paying a smaller amount of money, they will send out emails for their huge email list – huge meaning consists of 400,000 people. And then, these books for one day would be on their email and people can click on them. People can get to know them. So, it’s like a very cheap marketing tool in this regard. Buck Books is just $32 and it reaches to like almost 100,000 people. So, it’s a no-brainer deal for me. And in this way, I can get more sales for my book.

Kiruba: Got it. That’s a valuable piece of advice and I am going to write to you separately if you can help me out with the links to those, I will add them to the show notes of this podcast.

Zoe : Okay, sure.

Kiruba: Excellent. I think this has been wonderful. Before we wrap up, one final question, Zoe. So, what is your eighth book about?

Zoe: So, my next book will be about courage – how to realise that courage and what you need for your everyday life. Sometimes, people think that being courageous takes you…you escape all your fears and you will be in a fearless mood like I don’t know like Mel Gibson in a movie. But it’s not about that. It’s about being afraid and having the guts to put up your fears and adversities and go through, anyway. So, to against your fears, to go and reach your goals, this is through courage and this is what people, I think, have to realise. So, to be fearless doesn’t mean that to be without fear but to have the guts to do it against your fears. So, I don’t know, if I summed up it correctly, but the book actually tells you about how to overcome your limit in belief and just go forward and have the courage and be open minded and feel the chi and be actionary.

Kiruba: Excellent. When the book comes out, email me the link, Zoe and I will be happy to share it with our audience.

Zoe: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Kiruba: It’s been wonderful speaking with you. Thank you so much for taking the time out. I absolutely enjoyed this conversation.